SARAH GANCHER
PLAYWRIGHT
Current
>>Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy
New York City stage premiere at Vineyard Theatre
Produced in Association with Dori Berinstein/Dramatic Forces
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
January 25—March 3, 2024
>>Residency at Andy's Summer Playhouse with Jared Mezzocchi, August 2023
Working on Untitled Sunny's/Red Hook Project
>>Residency at Dorset Theatre Festival, Dorset, VT, July—August 2023
>>Workshopping Eugene Onegin: A Bluegrass Musical at The Orchard Project Summer Arts Festival
Book, music and lyrics by Sarah Gancher
Direction team Jade King Carroll and Dina Vovsi
Music Director Pete Lanctot
With Mary Bacon, Nick Blaemire, Diane Davis, Alan Epstein, Nina Grollman, John Kirk, Josh Machiz, Trish Miller,
Marianne Rendón, Cameron Scoggins, and Mike Shapiro
Friday, July 7, 2023 at Saratoga Arts Center
Saturday, July 8 2023 at Pitney Meadows Community Farm
>>Workshopping new bluegrass musical Eugene Onegin with New Dramatists via the Creativity Fund
as librettist, composer and lyricist
Directed by Jade King Carroll
Commission from Dorset Theatre Festival
April 2023
>>Workshopping new site-specific epic Untitled Sunny's/Red Hook Project
with director Jared Mezzocchi
Commission from En Garde Arts and The Vineyard Theatre
April 2023
>>Russian Troll Farm live in-person production at Geva Theatre's 50th Anniversary Season
February 28—March 26 2023
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
In association with Dori Bernstein
Dramaturg: Elizabeth Williamson
Projections: Jared Mezzocchi
Set: Alexander Dodge
Costumes: Linda Cho
Lights: Marcus Doshi
Sound: Darron L West
Stage: Katherine Thesing
Cast: Renata Friedman, Chris Ghaffari, Haskell King, John Lavelle, and Julia Brothers
>>Russian Troll Farm online production wins a 2023 Obie Award Special Citation!
Acceptance speech here
>>Developing Russian Troll Farm for television
as a half-hour animated comedy
with Bill Prady's Pine Tree Entertainment
>> Upcoming: New short film The Wife created with director Ellie Heyman
funded generously by a NYSCA grant (via WP Theater)
>>Upcoming: Radio play with jazz I Could Get a Man
commissioned by Playwrights Horizons for their series Soundstage's Season 2
directed by Jade King Carroll
>>Upcoming: collaborating with Andrew Bancroft of Freestyle Love Supreme on his new musical The Hustler and the Nun
Commissioned by Araca Group
>>Selected Recent Teaching:
- Grad Masterclass in Comedy (Screen and Stage), NYU Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing Teaching
- Story (grad class about dramatic structure onstage and on screen) at The New School for Drama
- Collaborative Making Process (acting/writing/directing grad class) at The New School for Drama
- Play II (BFA) at NYU Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing
- Advanced Playwriting at NYU TIsch Department of Dramatic Writing (co-taught with Lucas Hnath)
Recent Highlights
>>Featured on the Broadway Women's Fund 2022 Women to Watch on Broadway list
>> Featured on Articulate with James Cotter on PBS
Episode: Sarah Gancher / The Funny Thing About Grief
>> Winner of the James Stevenson Prize for Comedy from NPR's Playing on Air
Radio play Tech Demons commissioned by NPR's Playing on Air
Directed by Marc Bruni
with Isaac Oliver and Jay O Sanders
Listen here
>>Creating a new site-specific epic with director/designer Jared Mezzocchi
Co-commission from The Vineyard and En Garde Arts
Residency at Bethany Arts Fall 2022
>> Reading of new musical Maestro
Music and lyrics by Ben Wexler, Book and lyrics by Sarah Gancher
Commissioned by Grove/Whitman
December 2022
>>Curator for Space on Ryder Farm's Family Residency, Summer 2022
>>Russian Troll Farm live in-person production at Forward Theatre in Madison, WI
April—May 2022
Directed by Jennifer Uphoff Gray
with Casem AbuLughod, Cassandra Bissell, Sarah Day, Scott Haden, and Andrew Rathgeber
Sets: Christopher Dunham
Lights: Noele Stollmack
Costumes: Ren LaDassor
Sound / Music Composition: Joe Cerqua
Projections: Kathy Wittman
Legendary progressive journalist John Nichols writes about the production here
>>Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy digital production made the New York Times' Best Theater of 2020 list
New York City stage premiere at Vineyard Theatre
Produced in Association with Dori Berinstein/Dramatic Forces
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
January 25—March 3, 2024
>>Residency at Andy's Summer Playhouse with Jared Mezzocchi, August 2023
Working on Untitled Sunny's/Red Hook Project
>>Residency at Dorset Theatre Festival, Dorset, VT, July—August 2023
>>Workshopping Eugene Onegin: A Bluegrass Musical at The Orchard Project Summer Arts Festival
Book, music and lyrics by Sarah Gancher
Direction team Jade King Carroll and Dina Vovsi
Music Director Pete Lanctot
With Mary Bacon, Nick Blaemire, Diane Davis, Alan Epstein, Nina Grollman, John Kirk, Josh Machiz, Trish Miller,
Marianne Rendón, Cameron Scoggins, and Mike Shapiro
Friday, July 7, 2023 at Saratoga Arts Center
Saturday, July 8 2023 at Pitney Meadows Community Farm
>>Workshopping new bluegrass musical Eugene Onegin with New Dramatists via the Creativity Fund
as librettist, composer and lyricist
Directed by Jade King Carroll
Commission from Dorset Theatre Festival
April 2023
>>Workshopping new site-specific epic Untitled Sunny's/Red Hook Project
with director Jared Mezzocchi
Commission from En Garde Arts and The Vineyard Theatre
April 2023
>>Russian Troll Farm live in-person production at Geva Theatre's 50th Anniversary Season
February 28—March 26 2023
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
In association with Dori Bernstein
Dramaturg: Elizabeth Williamson
Projections: Jared Mezzocchi
Set: Alexander Dodge
Costumes: Linda Cho
Lights: Marcus Doshi
Sound: Darron L West
Stage: Katherine Thesing
Cast: Renata Friedman, Chris Ghaffari, Haskell King, John Lavelle, and Julia Brothers
>>Russian Troll Farm online production wins a 2023 Obie Award Special Citation!
Acceptance speech here
>>Developing Russian Troll Farm for television
as a half-hour animated comedy
with Bill Prady's Pine Tree Entertainment
>> Upcoming: New short film The Wife created with director Ellie Heyman
funded generously by a NYSCA grant (via WP Theater)
>>Upcoming: Radio play with jazz I Could Get a Man
commissioned by Playwrights Horizons for their series Soundstage's Season 2
directed by Jade King Carroll
>>Upcoming: collaborating with Andrew Bancroft of Freestyle Love Supreme on his new musical The Hustler and the Nun
Commissioned by Araca Group
>>Selected Recent Teaching:
- Grad Masterclass in Comedy (Screen and Stage), NYU Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing Teaching
- Story (grad class about dramatic structure onstage and on screen) at The New School for Drama
- Collaborative Making Process (acting/writing/directing grad class) at The New School for Drama
- Play II (BFA) at NYU Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing
- Advanced Playwriting at NYU TIsch Department of Dramatic Writing (co-taught with Lucas Hnath)
Recent Highlights
>>Featured on the Broadway Women's Fund 2022 Women to Watch on Broadway list
>> Featured on Articulate with James Cotter on PBS
Episode: Sarah Gancher / The Funny Thing About Grief
>> Winner of the James Stevenson Prize for Comedy from NPR's Playing on Air
Radio play Tech Demons commissioned by NPR's Playing on Air
Directed by Marc Bruni
with Isaac Oliver and Jay O Sanders
Listen here
>>Creating a new site-specific epic with director/designer Jared Mezzocchi
Co-commission from The Vineyard and En Garde Arts
Residency at Bethany Arts Fall 2022
>> Reading of new musical Maestro
Music and lyrics by Ben Wexler, Book and lyrics by Sarah Gancher
Commissioned by Grove/Whitman
December 2022
>>Curator for Space on Ryder Farm's Family Residency, Summer 2022
>>Russian Troll Farm live in-person production at Forward Theatre in Madison, WI
April—May 2022
Directed by Jennifer Uphoff Gray
with Casem AbuLughod, Cassandra Bissell, Sarah Day, Scott Haden, and Andrew Rathgeber
Sets: Christopher Dunham
Lights: Noele Stollmack
Costumes: Ren LaDassor
Sound / Music Composition: Joe Cerqua
Projections: Kathy Wittman
Legendary progressive journalist John Nichols writes about the production here
>>Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy digital production made the New York Times' Best Theater of 2020 list